Find Familiar is an interesting spell because it creates a permanent companion for one of your players... however, it's a companion that player has a lot of control over, so much so that they can basically take full control of it when they want. So here's a few things I wonder about...
Do you treat the Familiar as an NPC with its own personality and attitudes, or do you treat it as an extension of the player that they directly control at all times?
With the familiar's psychic link to the player... do you allow them to communicate with actual words from the familiar, or is it more of a one-way street just so they can give silent orders to their familiar?
For myself... in a recent game when a player cast Find Familiar I essentially gave them a vision where they could choose from three basic personality types (brash, shy, and bouncy), and treat the familiar more as an NPC with its own personality, but unflinching loyalty to the player. I also went with the idea that the familiar can't communicate through language even psychically, but can convey emotions and simple ideas.
It depends on the world, and the magic system. Depending on how I handle magic and extraplanar stuff in my worlds, I'll make my familiars brainless extensions, bound servants, loyal friends, or anything else.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I give my players a choice: they can have an unthinking slave familiar that will always do what they want and never act indipendently or they can have a thinking familiar that can act indipendently but might have its own opinions.
In my experience this is pretty balanced overall and both can be fun for everyone.
On top of this depending on how familiar(lol) with the system and how confident in homebrewing you are you can take this a step further for players that really want to turn their familiar into more of a party companion by giving it full autonomy and in exchange granting it some minor power or a slightly more powerful form. It can be really fun to role play a more indipendent familiar as a DM
Within 100ft, telepathic communication basically makes the familiar an extension of the player. Telepathy doesn't require language, and with constant communication, the familiar should be able to effectively communicate and act as though it were more intelligent than its statblock suggests.
Outside of that 100ft range, the familiar reverts to a "well-trained" version of a beast of its kind. It understands your "goal" when you send it on a mission, but may not be smart enough to accomplish it on its own. For example, a familiar sent into town to collect an item from a merchant might get lost because it can't read signs, or there might be a different shopkeeper that day, so it returns empty handed.
If a player sends a familiar to explore a dungeon, it would either need to be cautious (Find a door, return for instructions, find a door, return for instructions, find a sandwich, return for instructions), or It would be bold... (Find a door, continue, find a door, continue, stumble into pile of feeding goblins, get eaten.)
Beyond 100ft, the DM can narrate an NPC mini-adventure. The Player can roll for skill challenges and Hold Action (Dismiss) to get the Familiar out of danger if things go south, but otherwise is just an observer until it returns.
Out of curiosity, I'm trying to figure out what would happen to the familiar should the PC drop to 0 hp. I had a near miss in my game today, and then it occurred to me, would my familiar be smart enough, if its INT is 10 being average at least, and potentially capable to doing so, provide a healing potion if say the 2 party healers and the PC got knocked out by something, like say a glyph of warding exploding in their faces?
As I have read the spell rules and searched through threads to find an answer as according to what is written, the familiar doesn't just disappear should the PC go down. So given the ability to carry things such as a Puesdodragon, and a 10 INT, do you think it would possibly be able to feed a heal potion to the PC?
I'd say if you have a familiar with the limb arrangement necessary to open and manipulate a potion without spilling it, then it could reasonably give a potion to its master. However, I don't think it's something that it would think to do on it's own. So if you give the familiar clear instructions, like... "If I ever fall unconscious, pull this bottle of red liquid out of my pocket and pour it down my throat", then sure, I'd allow it. But if you just drop unconscious you're unable to issue commands and if it doesn't know about the potion plan it will just stand there and either do nothing or panic.
You did not ask the most important question: How do I kill off Familiars until my players stop using them?
They are the bane of any game, as they totally destroy any kind of surprise in an outdoor environment, and in many dungeons as well.
Tell them they can't have the spell? Observe that most familiars have fairly cruddy perception and worse investigation? Also, note that familiars are affected by spells that affect celestials, fey, or fiends (depending on their type), including Hallow.
There are actual stat blocks for independent/NPC familiars such as Imp (Familiar Variant).
That being said, I don't mind if my DM wants to inject a little rebellion into my familiar every now and then. As long as it makes sense and isn't just blatantly trying to foil whatever I'm trying to do.
As for communication, they certainly can't use language and IMO their low INT precludes understanding language as well. I picture the communication more as imperative images and emotions i.e. "go here (image) and look out (feeling of wariness)" or "I want (feeling of desire) that book (image)."
This is a level 1 spell. I don't expect too much of it and I remind my players not to either. If they send a familiar to scout a dungeon, it's going to die to the first threat it encounters. If it's set to keep watch all night, it very well might get mistaken for prey by predators. It's there for roleplay and minor bonuses - if it's breaking the game it's because you're letting it break the game.
You did not ask the most important question: How do I kill off Familiars until my players stop using them?
They are the bane of any game, as they totally destroy any kind of surprise in an outdoor environment, and in many dungeons as well.
Any AOE spell that deals half-damage on a successful save is basically guaranteed to fry any Familiar.
If your party sends their familiar forward to scout, if they don't specifically state that the familiar is doing so stealthily, anything they find might just fire an arrow at them before it can get a view of the area.
Keep in mind the long casting time to summon a new familiar. If your party is 3 rooms into a dungeon, loses their familiar, if they sit there for an hour burning incense they're likely to draw attention.
I like when warlocks do familiars, because then you have the patron control the familiar and you run it like a NPC. If warlock is misbehaving use the familiar to get him back on track. The patron will pick the familiar too. The Raven Queen would send a raven even though he wanted an owl or a frog. You can apply this to some other classes as well to a degree and depending on how heavy gods are used. Maybe the big baddy was able to interrupt the spell some and insert his own familiar (spy, homoculous).
You did not ask the most important question: How do I kill off Familiars until my players stop using them?
They are the bane of any game, as they totally destroy any kind of surprise in an outdoor environment, and in many dungeons as well.
Well, we'll see how true that is, as two of my players have just gotten Familiars.
I'm OK with it, actually. I tried to fiddle around before this with ways of preventing the variety of spoiler-inducing spells from inducing spoilers and I've finally just decided I'm not going to bother. If they want to use familiars to destroy every surprise around every corner from now until level 20, that's their call. I will not do anything to stop that itself, although I am sure some smarter NPCs will have devised ways they will attempt to stop them.
However, these players after using Sending and Speak with Dead and Zone of Truth and familiars and all the rest of it to avoid any possible mystery, surprise or suspense in the game, had better not complain that my adventures were too "predictable" or some nonsense.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
You did not ask the most important question: How do I kill off Familiars until my players stop using them?
They are the bane of any game, as they totally destroy any kind of surprise in an outdoor environment, and in many dungeons as well.
Any AOE spell that deals half-damage on a successful save is basically guaranteed to fry any Familiar.
If your party sends their familiar forward to scout, if they don't specifically state that the familiar is doing so stealthily, anything they find might just fire an arrow at them before it can get a view of the area.
Keep in mind the long casting time to summon a new familiar. If your party is 3 rooms into a dungeon, loses their familiar, if they sit there for an hour burning incense they're likely to draw attention.
Yes, a Fam in a dungeon, especially one with locked doors (spiders crawl under doors, but then have a whole set of other issues as other creepy crawlies make a meal of the spider), are not working well. But an Owl, with 120 feet Darkvison, and its Advantage on most Perception rolls, cruises at 100 feet up over outside terrain, surveying out a long long way, seeing anything. In a forest, sure, range of vision is way lower, but now the Owl is hard to see as well.
I played an Arcane Trickster, and took Find Fam, and maxed out its use. The DM hated it. I also DM now, and understand why.
I like when warlocks do familiars, because then you have the patron control the familiar and you run it like a NPC. If warlock is misbehaving use the familiar to get him back on track. The patron will pick the familiar too. The Raven Queen would send a raven even though he wanted an owl or a frog. You can apply this to some other classes as well to a degree and depending on how heavy gods are used. Maybe the big baddy was able to interrupt the spell some and insert his own familiar (spy, homoculous).
Technically, a Warlock's Patron does not get that involved. As a DM, you can arbitrarily state this happens, but most players balk at this.
Like all advice, it is just advice and may not work for everyone. Not everyone likes the same flavor kool-aid. My players loved it and we all had an enjoyable time with it. And like all things there needs to be a balance. Too much of anything is not good as is too little. I got involved with the familiar sparingly, some times in funny situations, sometimes to make things tight. The player had control of the familiar most of the time.
Maybe the big baddy was able to interrupt the spell some and insert his own familiar (spy, homoculous).
I did something along these general lines in a Curse of Strahd campaign that I was running a while back. One player had an arcane trickster rogue, who knew the find familiar spell that they used to summon a bat. The bat was primarily used to provide the help action to the rogue, so they could get advantage on their attacks and help maximize their sneak attack opportunities. A little frustrating at times, but not a deal breaker in any particular situation.
What the players did not realize is that after the first time the familiar "died" in Barovia, Strahd twisted the trapped spirit to his will. When the familiar was summoned again, the player had their familiar back, which still served them loyally in nearly every aspect of their role. However, the familiar was also siphoning information back to Strahd, so he knew where the characters were and what they were doing at most times. Helped play up on the intelligent BBEG having a good reason to know what the party was doing and why he was so prepared for their different strategies against him.
Thank you for your perspective and response. I think that it is a fair way to have it behave. ie. Follow the last instructions provided or hide due to lack of super seeding instructions such as 'if i go down use X.'
What the players did not realize is that after the first time the familiar "died" in Barovia, Strahd twisted the trapped spirit to his will.
This idea is so deliciously evil I might have to steal it.
My players ultimately loved the concept as well, although it wasn't revealed to them until the final battle with Strahd in Castle Ravenloft. Most enjoyable part was that the party was warned by Madame Eva that "one among their group will ultimately betray them to Strahd" or something along that line of verbiage. Players were then somewhat paranoid when NPCs would join their group (even if only temporarily), since they were constantly waiting for the traitor to be revealed.
Nobody ever expected the familiar that was with them almost the entire time to have an additional agenda...
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Find Familiar is an interesting spell because it creates a permanent companion for one of your players... however, it's a companion that player has a lot of control over, so much so that they can basically take full control of it when they want. So here's a few things I wonder about...
Do you treat the Familiar as an NPC with its own personality and attitudes, or do you treat it as an extension of the player that they directly control at all times?
With the familiar's psychic link to the player... do you allow them to communicate with actual words from the familiar, or is it more of a one-way street just so they can give silent orders to their familiar?
For myself... in a recent game when a player cast Find Familiar I essentially gave them a vision where they could choose from three basic personality types (brash, shy, and bouncy), and treat the familiar more as an NPC with its own personality, but unflinching loyalty to the player. I also went with the idea that the familiar can't communicate through language even psychically, but can convey emotions and simple ideas.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
It depends on the world, and the magic system. Depending on how I handle magic and extraplanar stuff in my worlds, I'll make my familiars brainless extensions, bound servants, loyal friends, or anything else.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I give my players a choice: they can have an unthinking slave familiar that will always do what they want and never act indipendently or they can have a thinking familiar that can act indipendently but might have its own opinions.
In my experience this is pretty balanced overall and both can be fun for everyone.
On top of this depending on how familiar(lol) with the system and how confident in homebrewing you are you can take this a step further for players that really want to turn their familiar into more of a party companion by giving it full autonomy and in exchange granting it some minor power or a slightly more powerful form. It can be really fun to role play a more indipendent familiar as a DM
Within 100ft, telepathic communication basically makes the familiar an extension of the player. Telepathy doesn't require language, and with constant communication, the familiar should be able to effectively communicate and act as though it were more intelligent than its statblock suggests.
Outside of that 100ft range, the familiar reverts to a "well-trained" version of a beast of its kind. It understands your "goal" when you send it on a mission, but may not be smart enough to accomplish it on its own. For example, a familiar sent into town to collect an item from a merchant might get lost because it can't read signs, or there might be a different shopkeeper that day, so it returns empty handed.
If a player sends a familiar to explore a dungeon, it would either need to be cautious (Find a door, return for instructions, find a door, return for instructions, find a sandwich, return for instructions), or
It would be bold... (Find a door, continue, find a door, continue, stumble into pile of feeding goblins, get eaten.)
Beyond 100ft, the DM can narrate an NPC mini-adventure. The Player can roll for skill challenges and Hold Action (Dismiss) to get the Familiar out of danger if things go south, but otherwise is just an observer until it returns.
Out of curiosity, I'm trying to figure out what would happen to the familiar should the PC drop to 0 hp. I had a near miss in my game today, and then it occurred to me, would my familiar be smart enough, if its INT is 10 being average at least, and potentially capable to doing so, provide a healing potion if say the 2 party healers and the PC got knocked out by something, like say a glyph of warding exploding in their faces?
As I have read the spell rules and searched through threads to find an answer as according to what is written, the familiar doesn't just disappear should the PC go down. So given the ability to carry things such as a Puesdodragon, and a 10 INT, do you think it would possibly be able to feed a heal potion to the PC?
I'd say if you have a familiar with the limb arrangement necessary to open and manipulate a potion without spilling it, then it could reasonably give a potion to its master. However, I don't think it's something that it would think to do on it's own. So if you give the familiar clear instructions, like... "If I ever fall unconscious, pull this bottle of red liquid out of my pocket and pour it down my throat", then sure, I'd allow it. But if you just drop unconscious you're unable to issue commands and if it doesn't know about the potion plan it will just stand there and either do nothing or panic.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
You did not ask the most important question: How do I kill off Familiars until my players stop using them?
They are the bane of any game, as they totally destroy any kind of surprise in an outdoor environment, and in many dungeons as well.
Tell them they can't have the spell? Observe that most familiars have fairly cruddy perception and worse investigation? Also, note that familiars are affected by spells that affect celestials, fey, or fiends (depending on their type), including Hallow.
There are actual stat blocks for independent/NPC familiars such as Imp (Familiar Variant).
That being said, I don't mind if my DM wants to inject a little rebellion into my familiar every now and then. As long as it makes sense and isn't just blatantly trying to foil whatever I'm trying to do.
As for communication, they certainly can't use language and IMO their low INT precludes understanding language as well. I picture the communication more as imperative images and emotions i.e. "go here (image) and look out (feeling of wariness)" or "I want (feeling of desire) that book (image)."
This is a level 1 spell. I don't expect too much of it and I remind my players not to either. If they send a familiar to scout a dungeon, it's going to die to the first threat it encounters. If it's set to keep watch all night, it very well might get mistaken for prey by predators. It's there for roleplay and minor bonuses - if it's breaking the game it's because you're letting it break the game.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Any AOE spell that deals half-damage on a successful save is basically guaranteed to fry any Familiar.
If your party sends their familiar forward to scout, if they don't specifically state that the familiar is doing so stealthily, anything they find might just fire an arrow at them before it can get a view of the area.
Keep in mind the long casting time to summon a new familiar. If your party is 3 rooms into a dungeon, loses their familiar, if they sit there for an hour burning incense they're likely to draw attention.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I like when warlocks do familiars, because then you have the patron control the familiar and you run it like a NPC. If warlock is misbehaving use the familiar to get him back on track. The patron will pick the familiar too. The Raven Queen would send a raven even though he wanted an owl or a frog. You can apply this to some other classes as well to a degree and depending on how heavy gods are used. Maybe the big baddy was able to interrupt the spell some and insert his own familiar (spy, homoculous).
Well, we'll see how true that is, as two of my players have just gotten Familiars.
I'm OK with it, actually. I tried to fiddle around before this with ways of preventing the variety of spoiler-inducing spells from inducing spoilers and I've finally just decided I'm not going to bother. If they want to use familiars to destroy every surprise around every corner from now until level 20, that's their call. I will not do anything to stop that itself, although I am sure some smarter NPCs will have devised ways they will attempt to stop them.
However, these players after using Sending and Speak with Dead and Zone of Truth and familiars and all the rest of it to avoid any possible mystery, surprise or suspense in the game, had better not complain that my adventures were too "predictable" or some nonsense.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Yes, a Fam in a dungeon, especially one with locked doors (spiders crawl under doors, but then have a whole set of other issues as other creepy crawlies make a meal of the spider), are not working well. But an Owl, with 120 feet Darkvison, and its Advantage on most Perception rolls, cruises at 100 feet up over outside terrain, surveying out a long long way, seeing anything. In a forest, sure, range of vision is way lower, but now the Owl is hard to see as well.
I played an Arcane Trickster, and took Find Fam, and maxed out its use. The DM hated it. I also DM now, and understand why.
Technically, a Warlock's Patron does not get that involved. As a DM, you can arbitrarily state this happens, but most players balk at this.
This is a really good point. It's always fun to turn a party's own tactics against them.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Like all advice, it is just advice and may not work for everyone. Not everyone likes the same flavor kool-aid. My players loved it and we all had an enjoyable time with it. And like all things there needs to be a balance. Too much of anything is not good as is too little. I got involved with the familiar sparingly, some times in funny situations, sometimes to make things tight. The player had control of the familiar most of the time.
I did something along these general lines in a Curse of Strahd campaign that I was running a while back. One player had an arcane trickster rogue, who knew the find familiar spell that they used to summon a bat. The bat was primarily used to provide the help action to the rogue, so they could get advantage on their attacks and help maximize their sneak attack opportunities. A little frustrating at times, but not a deal breaker in any particular situation.
What the players did not realize is that after the first time the familiar "died" in Barovia, Strahd twisted the trapped spirit to his will. When the familiar was summoned again, the player had their familiar back, which still served them loyally in nearly every aspect of their role. However, the familiar was also siphoning information back to Strahd, so he knew where the characters were and what they were doing at most times. Helped play up on the intelligent BBEG having a good reason to know what the party was doing and why he was so prepared for their different strategies against him.
This idea is so deliciously evil I might have to steal it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thank you for your perspective and response. I think that it is a fair way to have it behave. ie. Follow the last instructions provided or hide due to lack of super seeding instructions such as 'if i go down use X.'
So cheers for that.
My players ultimately loved the concept as well, although it wasn't revealed to them until the final battle with Strahd in Castle Ravenloft. Most enjoyable part was that the party was warned by Madame Eva that "one among their group will ultimately betray them to Strahd" or something along that line of verbiage. Players were then somewhat paranoid when NPCs would join their group (even if only temporarily), since they were constantly waiting for the traitor to be revealed.
Nobody ever expected the familiar that was with them almost the entire time to have an additional agenda...